Happy Canada Day to all!

 Even to those who have never gotten closer to Canada than a blog or two! :)

As I was clearing up the ACW game, there was a twitch in my brain and my table has been 'slightly adjusted' again before laying out a simple game for my 54's who haven't been out since last September, and umh..this day last year! If I break out the 54mm Dominion forces on Canada Day next year, it just might become a tradition.

Dominion Forces arrive with orders to drive a bunch of Fenians back over the border.

The actual game will probably get played tomorrow or the day after as the temperature in my room is now up into the 30+Celsius range.  (-30C is easier to deal with!) 

Old Macdonald's Farm

Old Macdonald wasn't as rich as his neighbor Mr. Hook, so his farm was on a smaller hill with smaller fields, but he was happy with his home, until the Red & Blue armies invaded his property and made an awful mess with not even so much as "Sorry about that, but it was their fault, not ours", let alone a note offering to pay damages! 

Here we have a Balloon's eye view of the two armies advancing on the disputed ridge.

The Dominion cavalry had a sly commander and rather than take the obvious route around the end of the ridge, he decided to drive his men and horses over a pass in the middle of the ridge. It might have worked if he hadn't spent half the first turn giving the men an inspirational address. Apparently many of the Red battalion Commanders decided to do the same, or stopped and swore like troopers because the cavalry was blocking their way!

While the Red commanders were cursing and damning, the Blue army took the first move on the next turn and carried out the cavalry flanking move, while their infantry seized the high ground. The red artillery commanders, happy to not have to drag their guns up the hill, just swung their guns around and opened fire on the Blue infantry while their cavalry commander led his troops at the gallop to meet their mounted rivals, apart from the troop of Mounted Rifles who dismounted, opened fire on the Bluecoats on the hill while trying their best to look like 3 companies of infantry. 

Welllll, it didn't take long for both sides to get at it, infantry and artillery blazing away and cavalry dancing up and back, clacking their swords together and generally having a good time. 

But, there's always some spoilsport who gets poked in the eye or something and gets all angry and next thing you know the two sides were going at each other hammer and tongs, no holds barred. 

It sure looked like those blue guys were gonna sweep the field clean and take home the pennant for game but on the other side of the field, the Red General gave the order: it was Jack Tar vs the Redbacks for a case of spirit's from the Farmhouse cellar. 

 

That charge "done it" BUT Blue still held Church Hill, so the Generals got together and agreed on a another draw. For the series, that's two draws and one victory for Red so they get the pennant for '24.

The Bridge Over The River Blutaip.

After the recent drawn battle, General Douglas  (Red) was ordered to destroy the bridge over the Blutaip River near Lawson's Inn. Having gotten word of this plan, General Lannigan (Blue) decided to prevent this vandalism.

The Dominion force had a slight advantage in infantry, but the Republic had more cavalry, so Lannigan decided to use this superiority to seize the bridge before the Dominion troops could start laying charges. He sent his Cossack volunteers ahead to seize it while his dragoons crossed the river to back them up, but they were quickly decimated by rifle and artillery fire. It was not as good a start as he had hoped for.

Dominion fire continued to wear down the Republican cavalry, while the Dominion cavalry took post to interfere with any future cavalry charges.

By this time, both sides infantry were  engaged in a firefight across the entire field but especially across the bridge. As long as the blue soldiers could dispute the bridge, the Dominion Sappers could not lay their charges.

As Lannigan watched his cavalry disintegrate while the infantry disputing the bridge were wavering after heavy losses, he decided to throw his reserve of infantry into the fight. They inflicted heavy losses on the Highlanders, forcing them to fall back. The day was not over yet. 

Alas for Lannigan, while he was issuing orders to his right wing infantry to wheel and attack the bridge while chasing off the remnant of the Highlanders, his army collapsed. All he could do was order the infantry to cover the retreat. Already he could see the Dominion Sappers at work.

Notes: 54mm figures. Infantry and artillery crew mostly converted homecast figures from commercial moulds, plastic guns, cavalry mostly conversions of Britain's figures.

Rules: home rules available here: Defended Border.

Now The Battle Is Lost And Won

It's a bit annoying sometimes when a stripped down, fast play, focus on outcome not process, set of rules not only plays quickly but sometimes, also seems to reflect historical actions better than many a more detailed set. 

Battle report to follow.

One Test Is Never Enough

The terrain is laid out, the armies sorted, ready to meet the enemy in the morning!

It seems to me, I've seen that scenario look,

It's from an old familiar book .....

So let's Blast Off!!

At Last!

 A free afternoon! 

We pick up the story (such as it is) as the 2 armies engage. The objective was to capture the two cross roads (see overview picture in 1st post)  and control a route across the table.   The "armies" had identical forces: 1 cavalry unit, 4 infantry units, including 1 veteran/elite unit, and one gun. 

Deployment is complete and the battle lines are engaged across the field.

At first the Dominion infantry were slow to move forward and deploy and it looked like the Republic would win the day, but once all the troops were on board and engaged, the battle became fierce. Eventually the Republican armies had to pull back while they still had enough troops to hold onto their crossroad.

The Origawn forces had pressed the Dominion's line back, but as they pressed forward to finish the job, they suffered heavy losses and had to fall back in hope of a drawn battle rather than an outright defeat.

More important than who won, was that the new 'Fast Play' rules lived up to my hopes and expectation. They are way short of detail and options but the turns lasted roughly 10 minutes each, seemed to very roughly reflect mid-19thC memoirs and battle reports, had suspense and turns of fortune. For the last few years, I had adopted the 15 turn game from the  One Hour Wargame, but having timed the turns, I decided to cut that to 12 which would give a roughly 2 hour game on average. There was a time when a 4 hour game was quite acceptable but those days are gone. 

It was a close run thing but with evening drawing near, and the Dominion troops nearly as battered as the Republican force.  General Douglas was set to launch a counter attack but the sun was getting low in the sky and the odds were against his battered army being able to punch hard enough to take the opposing crossroad in the time that was left so he decided to play it safe and settle for a draw.

So, all in all, things are looking promising, but its only one game so I'd better clear the table, come up with a different scenario, and play again, maybe a bigger one or I may keep that for later. Luckily, I'll be home alone for the coming week........ 

The one page Quick Reference as used can be found here: The Defended Border